Cambridge Design 2024 offer-holders

I genuinely hope whatever power you look up to blesses you and your US applications. Would you be ok with sending me your personal statement/major points you included in your ps to gain a clean sweep as teachers at my school don’t believe you can apply to different courses successfully? Thank you once again!

My personal statement was very activity-based, so it really depends on what you've done. I spoke about my most important projects and why I did them. You could probably do something CS related. My PS was 5 paragraphs, with the first three covered projects, the 4th one expands on how else I'm exploring the subject, 5th paragraph was just to breifly name drop competitions and other activities. Good luck with your applications

I genuinely hope whatever power you look up to blesses you and your US applications. Would you be ok with sending me your personal statement/major points you included in your ps to gain a clean sweep as teachers at my school don’t believe you can apply to different courses successfully? Thank you once again!

So for your three projects , at least one of them would’ve contained something architectural for the UCL course?

I’m pretty late to the discussion, but I’m pretty similar to anon1 in the structure of the ps, but I applied to a more “architectural” side of unis in addition to design: Bath architecture, UCL architecture msci + engineering & architectural design and Manchester architecture. I’d suggest talking about one architecture-related project in one of your paragraphs as it shows that you’re genuinely interested in a multitude of disciplines ALONG with architecture. Hope this helps

I’m pretty late to the discussion, but I’m pretty similar to anon1 in the structure of the ps, but I applied to a more “architectural” side of unis in addition to design: Bath architecture, UCL architecture msci + engineering & architectural design and Manchester architecture. I’d suggest talking about one architecture-related project in one of your paragraphs as it shows that you’re genuinely interested in a multitude of disciplines ALONG with architecture. Hope this helps

How about I blah blah worked on software to render architectural models/mention my interest in smart cities/mention a mini model of an interactive smart city ive made/ worked on an app where you point your phone camera at an area (e.g. cleared out land, construction site, etc) and it lets you visualise your architectural model in that area. I’m so lost at what Cambridge want because people say they’ve applied to design engineering and then geezers also say they’ve applied to architecture alongside??

I dont think you need to think that deep about it... Read the design course on cambridge's website again, and if you genuinely feel interested and excited about it, then thats the type of student they're looking for. There's no set list of things they're looking for, more so a student that is truly interested in their subject and one the professors will find nice to teach, which is also what the interview is about. They want to see how you respond to information just like you would in a classroom.

thank you so much for your help but im just so lost as to what projects to do if im essentially applying to all the same courses as you

anything you find interesting will be fine. They'd rather see genuine interest in something you did rather than do something you think they're looking for. Because it's not just the project, but also how you explain them to the interviewers.

anything you find interesting will be fine. They'd rather see genuine interest in something you did rather than do something you think they're looking for. Because it's not just the project, but also how you explain them to the interviewers.

Hello @jellbell! I'm a bit late to this thread too but I wanted to join in. I also applied to similar courses- design at cambridge, des eng at imperial, engineering design at bristol, product design engineering liverpool and DICE at queen marys. (got into all 5)
My personal statement was very varied, I quite literally spoke about my interest in aerospace engineering before switching to sustainability in design to fit all my big achievements/ interests. I think that as long as you link them properly it will be fine. The same goes with my portfolio, since I included pieces intersecting in traditional art, architectural work, textiles and of course some DT/ engineering style work. Since I do DT at school, I even included bits of my in-progress course work (although we ran out of time to see the whole thing in the interview). I don't do art- and didn't for GCSE either, which almost everyone I've spoken to about the course is doing, and you aren't either so that might come up (art is one of the recommended subjects for the course). I'm sure you know enough of that tho so it will be fine as long as you can really communicate your interest and ability in it throughout the admissions process.
Btw, are you sure you can apply for des eng at imperial? I am pretty sure physics is compulsory, isn't it? (I don't want to discourage you I'm just curious) Also they have a new entrance exam for the course for your year, and it has a physics section in it. Anyway feel free to reply and good luck!

thank you so much!!! des eng only requires maths because they want creativity from all sorts of backgrounds but i’m gonna have to speed run as level content if i want a shot at the entrance exam. your advice is so useful but i’m wondering what advice (portfolio, projects,etc) and instruction you’d give to me if i’m applying to basically all the same courses as you but in an more electrical engineering/computer science fashion instead of des eng at bath?

You'll need to sit the ESAT for DesEng.
2025 entry will be the first year thats ESAT required for DesEng applications so you could probably talk to applicants of other subejcts that previously required this?
Portfolio-wise, just put your best work forwards, its your opportunity to show why you're a good fit for the course. The interviewers will most likely build on what you've explained about projects, so I dont think theres any checklist to complete.
Don't compare your work to what others have done, its really more about what you have to say about it, not a measure of how good a project is. Because how could someone judge the work of applicants when everyone comes from different backgrounds and have access to different amounts of resources?
you need to back yourself.

Hey, I was just wondering where you found this information as I was also told by my school that there would be the ENGAA but I still ended up only doing ARCAA

imperial DesEng website